Chapter 7 - From London to Rome

After spending a couple of days catching the sights in the city of London, we flew to Madrid, Spain on 22 October. Given that we're on a budget we're unable to afford a hotel/backpackers hostel in each city that we visit. Therefore, we found a website (www.couchsurfing.com) that links past and present travellers around the world all offering free accommodation at their place for a night or two. We had our first Couchsurfing experience in Pinto (20km south of Madird) where we stayed with a 40 year old man called Max for 2 nights. Max showed us around Madrid and left us at the famous art museum "Mueso del Prado". Had we have been keen art lovers, Madrid would have been fantastic however we are not, and although it offered some nice historic buildings, the city disappointed us somewhat.

From Madrid we took a budget flight to Barcelona in the southeast of Spain. Sitting right on the Mediterranean, Barcelona did not disappoint. The city has fantastic historical architecture and a great pedestrian boulevard "Las Ramblas" which stretches from the city centre down to the waterfront and beaches. An interesting fact about the city is it once had a very eccentric, Catholic architect, Antoni Gaudi. His presence is very much felt there because his extremely bizarre "masterpieces" are scattered throughout the city. The only downside to the city was our coughing, groaning, snoring roommate in our backpackers hostel, we were honestly surprised he woke up alive each morning after the fits he had during the night.

We had planned to head straight to Nice and the French Riviera from Barcelona, however at the last minute a couchsurfer offered us a place to stay in Briancon, a small village right in the centre of the French Alps. Our 12 hour train ride along the south coast of France to Briancon turned into a 16 hour journey due to our lack of French and the French's lack of English assisting us to miss a train in Montpellier. However the journey was worth it. Briancon has a population of 13,000 and is situated in a valley surrounded by rugged snow-capped mountains, the scenery is great. The hospitality and trust of the couch surefers has amazed us. We stayed with a doctor (GuyRo) and his girlfriend (Celine) for four nights. GuyRo picked us up from the train station after middnight, gave us a key to his house and offered us everything he owned before he'd had a chance to even determine whether we were trustworthy people. We spent one day hiking in the alps to a summit 2000 metres above sea level, and another day with GuyRo and Celine where we drove through a section of a stage of the Tour de France to the nearby Italian city of Turino (host city of the 2006 winter olympics).

From Briancon we took a train to the Cote d Azur (also called the French Riviera) and based ourselves in Nice to explore the surrounding towns. We stayed in a great hostel which had been converted from an old former monastery and amazingly contained 8 other Tasmanians, two of which recognised me (Jim) from the university gym!

We took a bus ride along the mountain roads hugging the Mediterranean to visit the tiny, glamorous, exclusive sovereign state of Monaco (Monte Carlo), playground and tax haven to the rich and famous. The Prince is married to former Hollywood actress Grace Kelly. The streets are lined with Ferraris, Mercedes and Porsches (we couldn't spot a Datsun) and the ports are lined with million dollar luxury yachts. They let us into the world famous casino, but only as far as the toilets (which were impressive).

Our day in Nice will be remembered for being eye-witnesses (it happened right in front of us) to a lady running her motorbike scooter head on into a traffic light pole, fly over the front and end up unconscious in the gutter in a pool of blood with a big hole in her head. We were first on scene but coudnàt help a great deal as we didn't have a phone and didn't know the emergency number to call anyway. We are sure next time she will put her helmet on and not leave it strapped to the front of her bike.

From Nice we took an overnight train to the romantic, floating city of Venice. It is built on 117 islands with 150 odd canals. There are no cars. All public transport is via the canals (on water buses) or on your feet. Getting lost in the maze of alleyways is inevitable. Two days of walking the streets, checking out the Grand Canal and feeding the pigeons in San Marco Square was enough, so it was then on to Italy's Tuscany region, where we based ourselves in Florence.

Florence is a beautiful city with a huge artistic heritage (home of Michelangelo). Unfortunately it also overflows with tourists. If you were an art lover you'd be in heaven (all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are represented) however we weren't prepared to wait 2-4 hours in each queue. Instead, we visited the huge Duomo in the city center, and crossed the Ponte Vecchio (only bridge not destroyed by Nazi bombing in WWII) to overlook the city on top Piazzale Michelangelo at sunset.

We spent two days touring around smaller cities in the Tuscany region. The first day we went to Pisa and Siena by train and the second day we went to San Gimignano by bus. Without the leaning tower you'd struggle to find a reason to go to Pisa (apparently the tower started tilting when only 3 of the tower's 7 tiers were completed). Siena and San Gimignano were picturesque, medieval towns in the heart of Tuscany surrounded by olive groves interlocked with vineyards.

When it comes to seeing the sites in Rome, apparently a lifetime is not enough. We managed to see what we wanted in 3 days. From being left awestruck by St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City (the world's smallest country) to ancient ruin hopping through the likes of the Pantheon and Colosseum, Rome has been a fantastic finale to our favourite European country thus far, Italy.

After spending the last ten days eating pasta, pizza and gelati we may need to sit at opposite ends of the plane to keep it balanced. Our newly acquired insulation will hopefully help us in the cool climate of Scandinavia as that is our next destination.

Chapter 6 The Nile

We arrived in Cairo just before midnight on Tuesday 11th October. Home to around 17 million Egyptians (one of the world’s highest densities of people per sq/km) the city is full of contrast, with commercialised buildings laying next to mud-brick homes with donkeys and goats wandering through them. We were advised that we’d arrived in Egypt during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting (during daylight hours), with the Muslims five daily prayers broadcast over speakers throughout the city.

After picking up some student cards on Cairo’s black market we headed straight to the most famous of Egypt’s attractions, the pyramids of Giza. They are simply amazing. On the outskirts of Cairo and the Sahara Desert, they are far superior to what you imagine when seeing them on TV. Built by father, son and grandson around 2,500 B.C they stand approximately 140 metres tall with each brick the height of Kristen and some weighing 15 tonnes! How were they built and why? History has been unable to confirm the first question and we were even told that by using current-day Egyptian technology and machinery they would be unable to replicate them. The answer to the second question is that they were apparently used to house the mummified body of a single pharaoh, with the shape of the pyramid symbolising eternal life. The Sphinx lays in front of the middle pyramid and was carved during the reign of that pharaoh, it’s considered to portray his features. It was smaller than we’d imagined, and our local guide blamed the French for using it as target practice when he explained why it had no nose. We were unsure about this, because we’ve noticed that the French seem to get blamed for a lot of things.

We visited the city of Memphis (capital of Egypt for most of the Pharaonic Period) in the evening and then headed to the train station for the 14 hour trip down the Nile to the city of Aswan. Tap water is unsafe to drink in Egypt, but a local legend has it that if you have one drop of the water from the Nile you will fall in love with Egypt and want to come back again and again. We may have had one drop too many, as al it did for us was allow us to frequently experience the disgustingly unhygienic toilets on Egyptian trains.

After arriving in Aswan we visited the Aswan dam constructed by the British in the 19th century, the dam helped to regulate the flow if the Nile. To their astonishment it also helped to swamp the nearby temple of Philae complex which was majestically built around 300 BC. The UN therefore disassembled the massive complex stone by stone underwater and reconstructed it 20 metres higher on a nearby island in the 1970’s.

The following morning we boarded a felucca (Egyptian sail boats) with a Swiss, Columbian, and two Brits and sailed around the nearby islands. The most entertaining part of this was watching young boys furiously hand paddling their tiny handmade wooden boats to try and catch up to us and score some money. The children are very clever and can speak multiple languages which helps them communicate with tourists and sell their products. We told them we were Dutch which we found out by trial and error was one language they didn’t know.

In the afternoon we boarded a cruise that would take us from the beginning of the Nile in Aswan approximately 200 kilometres north to Luxor over the space of two nights. The scenery is absolutely amazing and the contrast unbelievable. The longest river in the world winding through mountainous rocky desert. The Nile is the centre and source of life in Egypt, without if the country would struggle to exist. It doesn’t rain in Aswan and rarely does in Cairo, so the only fertile strip of land is on either side of the Nile and the majority of the population live along it. With mud-brick housing, the locals life along-side their crops, cows and donkeys and small fishing boats among palm trees, with the desert as their backdrop. Our words cannot do the scenery justice.

We stopped at the temple of Kom Ombo which stands graciously on the banks of the Nile, where in ancient times sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank. The temple dates back a few hundred years B.C and has a dual nature, as two separate gods were worshipped there. It has a twin entrance, twin courts, twin “holy of holies” and probably a twin priesthood. The left side of the temple was dedicated to Haroeris, the right half to Sobek, the local crocodile-headed god. There are even some mummified crocodiles dug up from a nearby sacred-animal cemetery.

On our arrival in Luxor we spent the evening playing backgammon and discussing the Islamic religion with some locals, particularly interesting were their views on the Iraq War and the USA’s presence in the Middle East. It gave us the opportunity to see another side of the story as opposed to how it’s portrayed in the media in Western countries. After that evening it became apparent we hadn’t come across one American tourist anywhere in Egypt, a 90% Muslim country.

Luxor is described as the world’s largest open-air museum with a huge amount of riches. Our first day was spent on the West Bank where we visited the spectacular tombs of Egypt’s ancient pharaohs dug deep into the desert mountains in the Valley of the Kings awaiting immortality. The Egyptians began construction of each tomb on the first day of that particular pharaoh’s rule over Egypt and kept building until the pharaonic reign ended, so the longer their rule, the more spectacular their tomb. Next stop was the temple of Hatshepsut, an amazing structure carved out of the desert hills for one of the few women to rule ancient Egypt. This was the site of the massacre of 58 tourists by terrorists in 1997, and with the subsequent bombing of the Egyptian museum and the recent bombing at Sharm El-Sheikh, tourist buses now travel police convoy. We also visited the Valley of the Queens (home to the tombs of the female rulers) and the mummification museum.

The locals here love to shake your hand, and I think my lack of diligence in always washing my hands prior to eating assisted me in experiencing yet another bout of stomach problems. The necessity to be close to a toilet slightly disrupted our final day in Luxor, but we still managed to visit two famous Egyptian temples.

The Karnak Temple is more than just a temple. Set on 60 acres, everything is on a gigantic scale. It was built, added to, dismantled, restored, enlarged and decorated over a period of 2000 years (B.C) with almost every pharaoh leaving his (or her) mark.

The Luxor Temple is on a much smaller scale to Karnak. It includes three different faiths in the one temple (each section built during that particular faith’s reign); Egyptian gods, a Muslim mosque and a Coptic Christian area.

Back in Cairo after a 9 hour train ride, our final day in Egypt consisted of going inside Muhamed Ali’s mosque (not the boxer) and visiting the oldest Coptic church in Egypt. We were also shown inside a Jewish synagogue, and taken to a site behind it where we were told was the place Moses was found by a Pharaoh’s daughter on the banks of the Nile….

Finally, we visited the famed Egyptian Museum where we were able to view the mummies of the ancient pharaohs and also the findings from Tutankhamun’s famous tomb. To put the size of the museum in perspective, if you spent one minute at each exhibit it would take nine months to see everything.

Egypt has become our favourite country visited so far. It is so different and interesting. A couple of weeks ago we raved about the history in the UK, but it’s another world to see 5000 year old pyramids, temples, mummies and hieroglyphics, with the locals still living like you’d imagine thousands of years ago. Thankfully, remembering people’s names was not a problem, as everyone seemed to be called Mohammed (the same name as Islam’s final and great prophet). I also had the opportunity to pick up 10 camels and even one man’s business, it was however in exchange for Kris…

Chapter 5 Departing Manchester

Our time in the UK has nearly come to an end. Just after we have become accustomed to being greeted with "ya'll right?", referring to our mates as "lads" and hearing the word "bollix" whenever a Brit didn't believe us, it's time to go. Paying AUS $2.50 a litre for fuel and commuting for up to 40-60 minutes on public transport to get to work each morning will be easier to leave behind. It feels like the exact same edition of English newspaper has been printed each day that we've been here as the content never changes: criticism of Tony Blair's government (centred on Iraq), criticism of a royal or Posh and Beck's. Overall, we have been left with a very positive impression of the UK, wonderfully friendly people with a great sense of humour, amazing history and a beautiful nation.

The majority of our last four weeks have been spent preparing for the next leg of our travels, however we have managed to do a bit of sightseeing. Two friends from Tasmania, Jordy and Anne, recently arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland (after spending a month touring Thailand) on a similar type of trip to what we are doing. We hosted them in Manchester for four nights and on the Saturday we all drove to visit one of England’s most famous castles, Warwick Castle. Although it is fairly crowded with tourists, the castle itself still breathes of history (it dates back to the time of William the Conqueror in the late 1000's) and you can't help but get a realistic feel for what it was like during the war-times in England. After visiting the torture chambers and dungeons where traitors, felons and enemies were stretched and even left dangling naked in metal shackles from the ceilings until they died, you become very grateful for our justice system these days.

On the way home we visited Stratford-Upon-Avon, the birthplace of Sir William Shakespeare, not that you needed to be told that prior to going, as nearly every second store was named after some play on the words of Shakespeare literature.

The following weekend we took the 4 hour drive up to Edinburgh where Jordy and Anne hosted us for the weekend. With streets of Georgian townhouses and a looming castle on a hill in the centre of the city, it feels like you've stepped back in time 4oo hundred years, only without the public executions. As we toured the city on the open-top bus we had "The Last Drop" pub pointed out to us, an old pub where the soon-to-be beheaded were given their "last drop" of whiskey as some form of pain relief prior to their public execution.

To get some concept of what life was like in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago, we took a fascinating underground tour of the once plague-ridden nest of streets (called "closes") and remains of houses to the people who once lived there. The most important thing we learnt was if you were ever walking down the narrow closes at 10pm and you heard the words "Barre de Loo" (French for watch the toilet) don't look up and get out of the way as that was when each resident (some 7 floors high) was allowed to through their daily bucket of sewerage out their windows and onto the streets below, there were no sewerage pipes. Needless to say the residents on the ground floor paid the least rent...

Given that the house Jordy and Anne were staying in had a cable TV, we were able to watch the AFL Grand Final that night. Thankfully we'll be home for the Hawks premiership next year.

We depart Manchester by train on Monday the 10th of October and fly to Cairo, Egypt the following day where we will spend 9 days trekking down and back up the Nile. We will then spend 3 days in transit in London (our final time in the UK) and then head on our European leg of the trip. We are excited.

Chapter 4 Back to our Roots

We signed off our last update suggesting our finance problems would mean an early exit home to Australia. Thankfully, the last seven weeks have been prosperous, however, we have now run into another problem that is very close to forcing us out of England... the cricket! Should the unthinkable happen and England win The Ashes we will be sending our own ashes home with the Australian cricket team because the English will be simply too hard to live with.

After learning that our New Zealand housemates had decided to extend for a further month (they finally departed on August 26th) we planned on keeping ourselves busy on the weekends. We visited the city of Liverpool, the home of the Beatles and the Ferry Across the Mersey (made famous by Gerry and the Pacemakers) but unfortunately not much else. The night before we arrived, a "well educated, devout Christian" black teenager was found in a park with an axe in his head as a result of a race-hate crime, maybe that influenced our opinion of the city.

Our New Zealand friends purchased a 1991 BMW while they were in Manchester for their transport on their return trips to England. They were kind enough to allow us to go on their insurance policy for the remainder of our stay in England. Given that the first weekend following their departure was a bank holiday (long weekend) we took full advantage of the BMW and set off on a 7 hour trip to the south of England and origin of the "Stancombe" family, Devon. Apparently the bank holiday weekend is the busiest time on the roads in England, so we arose at 4am on Saturday morning with the plan of escaping the traffic, yet we still managed to get stuck in a traffic jam for 40 minutes through Bristol on a 4 lane motorway.

Our destination was a small village called Slapton in England’s far south-west, where Kris had traced the Stancombe family during her time in Salt Lake. England's huge motorways quickly turned into amazingly narrow eight-foot high hedge-lined roads, which intertwined and linked Slapton's neighbouring villages. Slapton village itself contained quaint thatched cottages, narrow winding streets that would barely fit a horse and cart in the old days, and an impressive ancient old church that was built in the 1000's, surrounded by leaning and crumbling old head stones, none of which bore the name Stancombe. Therefore we set off on an expedition touring the neighbouring village churches and their graveyards by night in search of the illusive Stancombe. We came to a tiny village called Sherford, home to a church (still in operation) and about 5 houses. We were advised by a local elderly couple that were in the graveyard (possibly picking out their plots) that inside the church was some history of the local area. They were right, inside was a book titled "1000 Years of Sherford" and as I flicked through the pages I came across a section on a near-by "Stancombe Manor", once occupied by a Norman named Roger, who took the title "Roger of Stancombe" from the Manor which is the origin of the surname - meaning 'stony valley'. The following day we visited Stancombe Manor. Built in approximately 1086, the Manor has been converted into a ritzy lodge accommodation, and we strolled uninvited around the gardens and farms trying to think of some way we could lay claim to the land via native title. We found out the 85 year-old author of 1000 years of Sherford lived close by, and as we wanted to find out more about the history of the Stancombe's, we contacted him and were promptly invited around by his wife for morning tea. Well-known in the Devon County as "Benny" Goodman, he was a classic old Englishman with a wealth of knowledge. He gave us a signed copy of his book and has been in touch with us constantly ever since forwarding us additional information on the Stancombes. Slapton and the surrounding areas (known as the English Riviera) with long pebble beaches, blue water and rugged cliffs, a far cry from some of the big cities we have been in. We camped in a tent on a local's farm in the rolling hills and beat the traffic home, the journey taking a swift 5 hours.

After discovering the origins of the Stancombes, the following weekend (the first weekend in September) we flew to Holland to visit the old stomping ground of Kris' Mum and get acquainted with our Dutch relatives. We were hosted by our second cousins Cor and Anje Zomer, their son Martijn and daughter Mijke who lived 15 minutes from Amsterdam. We were blessed with fantastic weather and wonderful tour guides and I was lucky enough to be chauffeured in a BMW Z3. Given Holland has a smaller land area then Tasmania (but the population of Australia) we were able to see much of the country in a short time. On Saturday we visited the city of Delft (famous Delft Blue pottery) containing narrow, canal-lined streets and remarkable old buildings. Delft, founded in 1100, was the epitome of what we perceived of Holland, tightly packed houses, cobble-stoned roads, windmills, people on bikes and a giant clog.

Martijn and Mijke took us into the infamous Amsterdam on Saturday night. We took a canal ride through the city, which showed the often-neglected side of a beautiful place. We visited the much talked about red-light district, buzzing with Brit's and the fresh smell of pot, with window upon window of women on offer. It certainly is everything it is made out to be. The following day we stopped by the house where Kris' mum was born and grew up, in a city called Haarlem (the famous district in NYC derives its name from this place) until she sailed with her family to Australia in 1953. Holland is a unique country, it was once a giant lake, and we still can't believe the person who thought to build a country there. Apparently the Dutch took it as a challenge, and went about pumping all the water into man-made canals to create dry land. They succeeded, and as a result the country lies below sea level, with massive floodgates to protect the nation from a rising North Sea and completely flooding the entire country. This poses a problem for the ships entering the main port in Amsterdam, as there are two different water levels, and on our final stop to see just how they do this, we travelled to the coast (Rotterdam) and bordering North Sea.

During the last seven weeks, Kris surprised me with a ticket to a Bad Religion concert, we caught a theatre performance of Grease and Kris began working as a PA with the NHS (England's public health system) immediately following the end of her contract with her previous employer. She also had the time to stroll into a dental surgery on a Saturday morning and walk out 15 minutes later minutes later minus a big tooth, all for just £7.68 (she had been suffering with a bad tooth ache).

We have four weeks left in Manchester before leaving for Egypt and then Europe.

Chapter 3 Discovering Manchester and Surrounds

We arrived in Manchester on the 30th of May which was to be our home for the next four and a half months. We were very fortunate to be offered a place to live in Worsley (a rather wealthy suburb in Greater Manchester) by a New Zealand family who only use the house for one month each year. The house is a very typical old English home, small and antique. It backs on to some woods and a golf course. We have great neighbours and are very happy here.

We focused on getting jobs ASAP to allow us to continue travelling. We found out quickly that you can’t really rely on recruitment agencies to do this for you, and that f you’re proactive yourself, there is work available. Kristen is currently working in a newly developed building complex on their security desk and I am working for an internet-based company as a consultant (after a bad experience with an English telecommunications company).

The only thing we knew about Manchester before arriving was that it was home to the world’s richest soccer club. We took a tour of the Manchester United stadium at Old Trafford. They allowed us on the pitch, in the change room and even created a match-day atmosphere as we ran down the player’s race.

For my birthday weekend we hired a car and drove along Wales’ northern coast right out to the western most point at Holyhead. On our journey back to Manchester we drove through the Snowdonia National Park in Central Wales. We had a fantastic weekend. Wales is a beautiful place with so much history, full of castles, roman cities, rolling green hills and nice beaches. We even trekked over a few mountains in search of ‘Druid’s Circle’, a place where witches used to sacrifice children. We also had the privilege of seeing a “Holy Well”, the place where the infamous Saint Winifred apparently had her head cut off by a young Prince ‘admirer’ only to have it sewn on again by her father and miraculously living…
In the same weekend we also drove up to Blackpool on England’s west coast. Our tourist brochure described Blackpool as Britain’s tourist resort with long, sandy white beaches. Unfortunately when we arrived we found in to be a bad version of a mini Las Vegas, with long sandy brown beaches. Then a sea mist swept over the town and we could literally see only about 5 metres in front of us. Not quite the resort we were lead to believe.
It was in Blackpool that we learnt of Australia’s shock loss to Bangladesh in the cricket. This was particularly hard to take considering we spent our first few weeks gloating to the locals that our whole reason for coming to England was to watch Australia win the Ashes. We attended the Australia versus Bangladesh game at Old Trafford the following weekend which thankfully we won easily. We did however have some inside knowledge on that game, as the previous day Kris was in Manchester City Centre the previous day and saw what she thought was a familiar face. She tugged on this person’s shirt and it was Australia’s wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist with Brad Hogg. She mentioned she was from “Punter’s” home town and got the inside scoop on the weather and pitch report for the month.

Given that we come from a small place like Tasmania, we made a goal to attend a concert of some sort while we were here in Manchester to take advantage of all the big bands that visit. We ended up winning tickets to a punk concert attended by about 1000 punks who were all drinking, fighting and head-banging. It was not quite the concert we were after, but an experience none the less.

Last weekend we visited the Roman city of York (about 100 miles out of Manchester). The city is surrounded by a wall and reminded us a lot of Chester in Wales. The origins of York stem back to 200AD when it was occupied by the Romans and Constantine the Great. It was subsequently overrun by the Normans and then invaded by the Vikings. Thankfully for us the Vikings had gone and we were just greeted by nice POMS. The city is dominated by the huge West Minster Cathedral. We were fortunate enough to go underneath this Minster where archaeologists discovered Roman roads (which we walked on) and structures of their buildings that are nearly 2000 years old. A highlight of the weekend was going on one of York’s infamous ghost tours.

As mentioned earlier, we are living in a home owned by a New Zealand family who only use their home here for one month out of every year. It just so happens that this time, it’s the month of July. We wouldn’t normally mention such an insignificant event as a sharing a house for a month, but we have found this to be an unforgettable experience. The family consists of 4. John, the father is an 87 year old Maori tribe leader. Christine, his wife, is 57 and derives “energy” from almost every object and place. Ramon is their 9 year old Samoan grandson. Then there is Antony, their 37 year old son. We are unsure of how to describe Antony appropriately. He was involved in a truck accident when he was 7 and his brain has apparently never progressed since then. But he is by no means “disabled” so we hope no-one gets offended by our description. His eyes are permanently shut so he holds his right eyelid open with his finger to see. He is a prolific joke teller, the jokes are funny at first but we soon learned that they are often repeated. He sings John Denver songs whilst on the toilet. He is one of the most interesting characters we have met. He is constantly in your face. He is very famous in Auckland as he has appeared on the front-page of their newspaper because the local Mayor objected to him getting married to his Indian/Fijian disabled wife. We recently learnt he is currently writing a children’s book, get ready for the title: “When I was 7 I got hit by a truck”… sure to be a bedtime favourite for all children. Antony also has a passion for letter writing, he has asked for some of your addresses so if you get a strange typed letter in the mail from “your friend Antony” you’ll know why. The whole family decided to pitch a family sized tent in the tiny backyard and live in there for the remainder of their stay. Christine insists they get so much ‘energy’ from the woods behind them. They are quite literally made for Hollywood and sharing a miniscule 2 bedroom house with them is one unforgettable experience.
The family is also very wealthy (John is involved in huge monetary deals claiming Maori land back off the New Zealand Government) and each year they throw an over-the-top party. This year’s party was yesterday and involved an 18 piece brass band in our driveway and 75 guests. Let’s just say it didn’t take long to grab the attention of the neighbours in our usually really quiet little old English street.

The London bomb blasts are obviously big news over here. After witnessing the crowds on the underground and buses for ourselves at peak hour so many people must have been effected.

We are having an amazing time and have found all the English people and places to be wonderful. However, due to circumstances both in and out of our control we are now flat broke and may be home soon…
All donations will be gladly accepted.

Chapter 2 Thailand to India

Apologies to those of you who are busy as to the length of this email. We are keeping these emails as a travel journey so please skip over the information that you do not find interesting.

We left Krabi in Southern Thailand on 10th May on an apparent "VIP" bus for Bangkok. We were advised the trip would take 10 hours, it took 16. We were shipped from bus stop to bus stop in some very dodgy procedure. The bus broke down twice and the air conditioning system leaked over all the passengers.

Lonely Planet desrcibes Bangkok as a huge sprawling city with over 10 million people and full of pollution, chaos and money stealing people, but underneath you will find a charming city with wonderful people. Unfortunately and fortunately, we experienced both ends of the spectrum.
Within 3 hours of our arrival in Bangkok we became involved in a perfectly run scam beginning at one of Bangkok's major tourist attractions. It very nearly cost us close to AUD$1000 and ended up involving VISA, ANZ, a world-renowned high class fashion label and the Thai Police. The story is long and a very interesting one and we will not give the full details at this stage, but we are better off for the experience.

On our first full day in Bangkok we took a day tour. After being told towait at the "Novotel Bangkok" for our mini-van pick up, we found out we were actually supposed to be at the "Novotel Lotus Bangkok" at the other end of the city. Finally we departed for Kanchanaburi, a city 2 hours North West of Bangkok that is home to the River Kwai and much World War 2 memorabillia.

Kanchanaburi is the place where the Japanese held British, Australian, US, Dutch and Thai Prsioners of War during World War 2 and forced them to build a railway (now called the "Death Railway" due to the huge amount of deaths of the PoW's) linking Thailand to Burma. We visited the war museum and took a long tail boat up the river to the site of the infamous bridge on the
River Kwai. We travelled by train along the Death Railway and through Hellfire Pass (so called because at night the area was lit up by fires and looking down at the prisoners gave the illusion of hell). In the afternoon we went elephant trekking and bamboo rafting, and given the temperature was about 40 degrees celsius with 100% humidity our new found French friends andus stripped off (some more than others, those Europeans...) and jumped in the River Kwai much to the locals interest. We finished the day by visiting the war cemetery. We had a fantastic day. We spent our final day in Bangkok looking around the shops and had an interesting walk through Bangkok's red-light district and adjoining street market at night.

In Bangkok we stayed at an Australian run backpackers called "Big John's". It was great to be in a place that had AFL on TV in the restaurant area and Big John himself cooking a free BBQ on the streets of Bangkok.

We thought the taxi drivers and people on the street in Bangkok were bad in terms of trying to sell you things, but they were nothing compared to the taxi drivers that greeted us at Beijing airport. These guys were far more persistent and followed us the length of the airport trying to
persuade us from catching the shuttle bus with all sorts of lies. But even this didn't prepare us for when the shuttle bus dumped us somewhere in the city. As the bus slowed down, bus slowed down, 20-30 Chinese men rushed towards it. We initially thought they were rushing to get a good seat on the bus, but later found out they (bicylce taxi drivers) were waiting for a "western" person to get off the bus to try and take them somewhere. As we were the only westerners on the bus, we got mobbed. They grabbed us by the arm and tried to get our luggage. And when we tried to look at our map and hotel address (given we had no idea where we were) they jumped all over us and made it pretty hard to think. We tried walking off on them but they followed us on their bikes. Finally we hailed down a cab (taxis cost less than AUD$2 for the first 3kms in Beijing) which re-emphasised how little English is spoken in China as hedropped us off at the wrong hotel at the other end of the city and took off. We finally made it to our hotel. We visited Tiananmen Square (the world's largest public square and site ofthe 1989 massacre when the Chinese army drove over pro-democracy demonstrators in tanks killing thousands) in the morning. The ususal scammers were up to their usual tricks. Unfortunately we have become skeptical of every local that comes up to us and starts a conversation. We went thorugh the Forbidden City in the afternoon (so called because it was off-limits for 500 years and home to two dynasties of emperors). The Forbidden City was impressive, with huge walls and a moat around it and many palaces inside it typical of what you associate with China. Apparently the emperors rarely ever ventured outside the walls (on top of ruling over China, they had to deal with 2000 wives and concubines) and when you see inside them you realise why. You pay for an audio tape and walkman at the entrance gate and you listen to Roger Moore (ex 007) as he gives you a tour throughout the Forbidden City.
The following day we took a trip 70 km North-West of Beijing to see China's contribution to the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Wall of China. On the way we visited the Ming Tombs, burial place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors that reigned over China (and lived in the Forbidden City) from the 1300-1600's. Apparently the Chinese say "you're not a man until you've climbed the Great Wall". Well we can now say we're men in China. We walked and climbed (it is very steep in some sections, with 500m drops on both sides) a section of the Great Wall to the highest watchtower. It has to be seen to be believed as it runs over mountain tops in the distance. Construction of it began over 2000 years ago but apparently it never really served its purpose as a defence line. On the way home we visited the site of the 2008 Olympics.

On our final day in Beijing, to escape the pollution I looked around one of Beijing's huge shopping plazas while Jim hired a bicycle and rode around the streets and hutongs (alleyways where a lot of locals live, some in extreme poverty). Jim just tried to stay close enough to a local in
front to make it over the chaotic intersections but not too close where he'd be hit by one of their numerous spits (everyone seems to spit in Beijing). You really do feel like a foreigner in Beijing, the city and surrounding areas has a population of 50 million people, nearly all Chinese with hardly any speaking English. You can feel that a lot of them are laughing and talking about you when you walk past, not in a bad way, more in a novelty way. I attracted a lot of attention with my blonde hair with people asking for me to be in their photos.

Our arrival in Hong Kong was a welcome one. It was a good, clean place full of high rise buildings, parks and mountains. We found and attended the Hong Kong LDS Temple. It really is a country where East meets West as they say. At night the lights of the buildings rival Las Vegas.


We arrived in Delhi, India on 21st May. We are not going to even try to attempt to describe India and our time there in words (photos do not do it justice either). It is a place that stirs up every motion, from young kids tapping on your window for money; extreme poverty and homelessness, to amazing sights and wonderful people. We did what is known as the "Golden Triangle": Delhi - Agra - Jaipur - Delhi. One minute you want to go straight home and the next you feel like you could stay forever. No other place we've visited had a feel like India. It is a fascinating place that we will never forget and we would love to go back (but not in Summer, 45 degrees was difficult to handle).


We arrived in London on 27th May and are currently in Birmingham staying with Emma Reeves and her family. We travel to Manchester tomorrow where we have found a house to live in and hope to secure jobs ASAP.

The First 8 Days...

Here is an update on our first 8 days.

We arrived in Singapore last Monday. We spent a two days there taking in the scenery by cable car to Sentosa Island and enjoyed a Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. We stayed in a backpackers in Little India, the weather was really hot and humid, a bit of a shock in comparison to home. Singapore was not the clean beautiful place we both imagined. We wouldn't hurry back to see it again, but glad we went.

We took a 4 hour bus ride accross the Singapore/Malaysia border through the jungle and palm tree forests on our way to Kuala Lumpur and arrived in a storm. After being ripped off with the taxi fare, we found our little hole in the wall of a backpackers place. Let's just say that the pictures of the place on the internet were glamorous compared to the nice little package we received. We were greeted by "Sean", who explained to us the security procedures to take given we were staying in a high crime area with beggars coming to the door. We were reassured he was an ex US Marine with security procedures of his own that he couldn't tell us about. Our room was literally a bed, blanket and a couple of rocks that we used as pillows. The shared bathroom was a "shower" and toilet (that you dare not sit on) ALL IN ONE!
It was our first time experience on a squat toilet in Pizza Hut. I was unsure what to do at first.

We walked across the bridge of KL's twin towers and experienced our first taste of Hawker food in the back streets of KL (Hawker food is very authentic Malaysian food that you buy in small stalls on the side of the street). You'd definitely question the hygiene.
KL's traffic was chaos, but apparently very organised.

From KL we flew to Penang for $3 Australian each on Asia's budget airline. It appeared the further up we got in South East Asia the dirtier and less fortunate the cities became, yet by night they all looked fantastic.

We caught a mini van from Penang to Krabi and was told it would take 4 hours. 9 hours later we arrived in the pouring monsoon rain. Our experience on the Malaysia/Thailand border was interesting. We were the only english speaking and white people on the mini van (which was packed to its full capacity) and it seemed everybody knew what was going on but us. The blue plastic sheets that we used to keep the sun out we later found were very convenient devices for hiding the young asian girl (who was sitting next to Kristen) and smuggling her over the border. Money changed hands between all passengers and the driver except us. We were thinking perhaps we were the only ones who were legally allowed to cross the border into Thailand especially when half the passengers received their passports on arrival at the border. We weren't sure what was going on, and we weren't prepared to ask, we just acted dumb.

Our arrival in Krabi was a welcome one. It's a great place with great people who live simple lives but seem quite happy. This is the first destination we feel we would revisit.

On our first full day we planned a trip to Phi Phi Island but it was cancelled due to prevailing monsoons. They gave us a good discount on a day trip Sea Kayaking through limestone canyons and caves, and through rivers in the jungle. Monkeys would literally jump from the trees onto our canoes. Our guide was local and just hilarious. A lot like a human hyeena. After the long day of Kayaking we ended it with a traditional Thai massage.

Yesterday we hired a motorbike for less than five dollars Australian for the entire day. We rode around the entire Krabi province, through all the local towns and villages, stopped to take a long boat ride over to Rai Lay beach and had a very tasty Mussamen Curry and swim. We took in some beautiful scenery along the way but had to stop for about ten minutes at one of the locals house to escape the monsoon that completely drenched us. You can see the monsoon coming in the distance and then it is a race to get to shelter before it gets us. They can be a welcome retreat from the heat, but the rain and wind here is always warm. The water is like a bath.

We are on our way to Bangkok this afternoon. In one hour we begin our 12 hour bus trip. From Bangkok we head to Beijing, Hong Kong and then India before arriving in the UK on the 27th of May.